Urban Movies Continue To Rise

Urban movies continue to grow in popularity. This can be seen in the exploding direct to video market where urban movies reign supreme. The rising quality of independent urban movies has made them much more attractive to DVD consumers.

Some talented film directors behind this urban movement are Charles Dutton, Damon Dash, Sid Kali, Hype Williams, John Singleton, Dale Stelly, Mike O'Dea and Quentin Tarantino.

The diversity of the urban genre continues to grow because the storylines are connecting with a larger audience by going beyond what you would expect to see in an urban movie. Filmmakers are pushing the complexity and overall look of the urban genre to new levels.

Exploring the urban landscape and culture makes for entertaining films that offer viewers a look into a slice of americana they might not otherwise experience. Collaborating with dedicated individuals that work in front of the camera and behind the scenes to create quality urban movies has always been a life goal of Director Sid Kali.

Sid Kali made his directorial debut with the urban feature "Consignment". The spirit of independent filmmaking came together. We felt "Consignment" was best served highlighting a Latino and Black perspective of the events that were going to unfold in the film.

The plot centers around a Virginia Beach drug dealer that runs into trouble and has to lay low in Southern California. This being the movies all the problems that come with power, drug money, fast women, and jealous rivals has to come out. It was nice to be able to mix in the subtle cultural differences between the two places.

This West Coast and East Coast mix worked out because Co-Producer and Editor Tim Beachum had lived in Ohio, Detroit , and Virginia Beach during his years. While Sid Kali has only lived in Southern California his entire life. By working together they were able to blend these influences together. "Consignment" is being released on DVD November 2007 by Maverick Entertainment Group, Inc. Support independent film and add this feature to your DVD collection.

An important aspect of making an urban movie is keeping it authentic. At the independent level budgets are tighter, so it helps if you write a script that has elements you can realistically translate from the page to the screen. The basic idea is to write a script that you can shoot using your resources. The cool thing with urban movies are they lend themselves to many more backdrops than before.

It used to be when you attached the word urban to a film the story had to take place in the inner city. That's changing as urban culture and style is moving beyond those pervious boundaries. This makes for an exciting time to shoot urban movies.

The word "crime drama" is used to describe films like "Training Day", "The Departed", "Heat" and 'Scarface'. To some movie buffs these are urban masterpieces done by highly talented and respected filmmakers at the top of their creative game. This shows the diversity of the urban genre.

After the experience of shooting "Consignment". Slice Of Americana Films wanted to expand their take on the urban genre with "In With Thieves". This urban movie brings together a unique blend of creative elements.

"In With Thieves" features a Cuban cartel that practices their own version of Santeria, an African based crime group that deals in blood diamonds, ruthless Albanian gangsters, and an American burglary crew that is Latino, Black, and Irish.

This unique blend of creative and visual elements we felt would make for a provocative urban film. The inspiration was to show that urban stories can have global influences.

Career criminal Jack McGee (Tony Napoli) is out of prison facing hard times. His trophy wife Karen (Jennifer Day) spent all the money they had stashed away and found time to fall in love with another man. Max (Edward Gusts) his junkie brother-in-law, made enemies with the Albanian Mafia leaving Jack to hold the bag on a large debt. The release date for Jack insn't a surprise to anyone who runs in criminal circles. Former gang member turned burglar Hector Garcia (Walter Pagan) and street huslter Frank Washington (Jerome A. Hawkins) are his partners in crime. When Jack was running the robbery crew they were flush with cash. After he went inside the scores dried up. Now it's time for them to reconnect and go back to work.

Anton (Jayson Matthews) a savvy and vicious Albanian boss, has his trusted solider Vicktor (Marek Matousek) carry out a brutal act of violence to send a message to Jack. The message is clear to Jack. Pay the debt or everyone close to him will be murdered. Over friendly welcome home drinks Jack asks Hector and Frank to come through on the money he needs to pay off Anton. They both refuse his request turning the reunion bitter and bringing some old wounds to the surface.

Karen halfway walks back into Jack's life pushing him into a frantic mix of anger, confusion, and dark alcohol fueled thoughts. She's still involved with the other man. Adding to his problems is a gunpoint reminder that he has a short time to pay his debt or Karen will be killed. Pressed he hooks back up with Hector and Frank to steal the money he needs to pay Anton. They come up short.

He falls into a heated sexual affair with contract killer Rita Desouza (Arnita Champion) to numb his pain. Sex turns to conspiracy when she lays out a plan to have her husband ripped-off during a 5 million dollar diamond deal. Her husband is ruthless Cuban kingpin David Desouza (Art Parga). He's heavily into his own version of Santeria and the blood diamond market. He depends on Rita and his most bloodthirsty enforcer Voodoo (Jesse James Youngblood) took keep people in line.

Jack brings in Hector and Frank to help him pull off the robbery. Out of time on his debt he's forced to let Anton in on the job for a large cut of the take. They crash in on illegal blood diamond deal between a Cuban cartel and an African based crime syndicate headed by an ambitious upstart known as Omar (Keion Adams).

The rip-off erupts into deadly violence. This sets off a frenzy of double-crosses and brazen executions that entwine everyone in a bloody conflict that plays out to an explosive ending. Friendship, loyalty, and love run short in a world of greed.

The trailer can be viewed on YouTube.Com, Yahoo Videos, Google Videos, AtomFilms.Com, and iFilm.Com

"In With Thieves" is in the final stages of post-production and is being represented to interested distributors by Mark Steven Bosko the author of "The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook". A must read for independent filmmakers that want practical advice on the business. While filmmaking is an art you should be prepared for the harsh realities of the business side. All filmmakers take lumps coming up through the game.

Urban movies will continue to rise as talented filmmakers show their passion for making movies with an independent heart. Slice Of Americana Films has started pre-production for their third urban movie titled "Stash Spot". Rival criminals fight to find a fortune in cash ripped-off during a drug deal gone bad. When the stick-up artists responsible turn up dead, a bloodbath erupts as each vicious criminal makes their ruthless play to locate the money.

You always learn things with each film you produce. Hopefully filmmakers will continue to push the urban genre beyond what it is now.

* Quick and dirty tips if you're going to produce your own urban movie:
(* does not apply to filmmakers that have Hollywood connections or access to big money)

Avoid writing an amazing scene like the shoot-out in 'Heat' if you can't pull it off.

Write realistic locations into your script that you have shooting access to.

Action scenes are always going to take longer to light and shoot than talking head scenes.

Make sure your dialogue is authentic to the culture of the street. If you're writing your own script the right words will cost you nothing.

Wardrobe can't make Corey Feldman (nothing against The Corey) a Latino gangster by having him wear a bandanna and a flannel shirt buttoned only at the top. You see that type of phony wardrobe in some really bad urban movies.

Nothing will go as planned.

Leave your ego behind.

Whatever happens keep the show rolling.

Slice Of Americana Films was formed in 2005 by Sid Kali to produce quality urban movies.Amity Blog78161
Aidan Blog81754

Make Extra Spending Money in time For Holiday Shopping

With the holidays just a few short months away, now is the time to try to get extra cash to spend on your friends, family and maybe even youself. You'll hear all over the news to try and NOT use your credit cards, as interest rates will kill you later. It can be so hard to decide how much to spend on people, and what you can afford without going broke doing it. So what can you do, in order to make that extra money you may need for the holidays? Follow our tips below to help you find that "hidden" cash that you can use now to make your holidays merry and bright.

1. Clean out your house - Look around your house/garage. Do you have anything you don't use anymore, doesn't fit, given as a gift but you didn't want it to begin with? Sell it on eBay. Take your item, do a search on eBay and see what similiar items are going for now. You can do a short 3 day sale, or a 7 day sale, depending on how quickly you need the cash. Take good quality digital photos of your item, and make sure your description covers everything. If your items are quite large, and too expensive to ship, offer a "pick up only" option, to lure those in your area to bid on your item. Be realistic about the price as well. If you start the bid too high, you may end up getting no bids at all. Many times a lower starting bid will start a bidding war in the end between people who have gotten the "auction itch" and now want your item regardless of the price. When I sell on eBay, I prefer buyers who either send me a money order, or PayPal only. It gives you better options in the end.

2. Organize a neighborhood yard sale - Get you and your neighbors together to have a commuinty yard sale. Advertise in the paper for either free, or cheaply, and then more people are likley to come if they see that there are multiple families participating as compared to just one. Make it worth their while. Have coffee and donuts available for the early birds. If they want to talk you down, bargain with them. Remember - you are trying to make extra cash so every little bit counts.

3. Cut out buying coffee/lunch for a month - If you like to have that $4.00 cafe latte every morning, and lunch at the local spot, try bringing it from home for a month, and see how much you can save. Put the money you would've spent that week in a jar. By the end of the month you could have anywhere between $80 - 200 dollars at the end of the month, depending on how much you were spending.

4. Offer your services - If you bake well, or are crafty, tell your friends that you'll make those school cookies, or teacher's gifts for a nominal fee. Some parents may even like it if you delivered those items as well, which you could add to your cost.

5. Look in the paper for temp jobs - if you have the time, perhaps only on the weekend, see if local stores are offering seasonal jobs that would give you extra spending money. Even better would be an employee discount, where you could use your extra cash for gitf buying.

There are many other ways for you to come up with extra spending money for the holidays. Don't let the credit card companies lure you into thinking that you can spend up to your limit. You can easily and creatively have a great holiday season without breaking the bank. Good luck to you all!

S.W. Chadwick has been working in online businesses from home since 2000. She has written dozens of articles regarding entrepreneurial pursuits and online businesses. To learn more about working from home, please visit http://www.dowhatyouloveandmakemoney.com. Copyright 2006, S.W. Chadwick, All Rights ReservedAndree Blog77874
Andra Blog44132

Cheap personal loans works well to meet your needs

If you are planning to buy a new car, home or consolidate your debts at cheaper interest rates and for longer time then opt for cheap personal loans. Cheap personal loans are there to meet the personal needs of the borrower.

With cheap personal loans borrower can avail the extra money to deal with his personal needs. The best way to access cheap personal loans is through the internet; loan market is swamped away with the online lenders that can be accessed through the online mode.

Now with the outcome of the technology, borrower feels easy and comfortable to choose the cheap personal loan i.e. only possible when borrower carries the complete search for the loan.

While searching for the cheap personal loans, borrower must consider that he must avail that loan which offers him lower interest, longer repayment and most importantly larger loan amount.

Depending upon the borrowers needs, cheap personal loan can be categorized as secured and unsecured. In the secured personal loans borrower is required to place some valuable collateral like property, land, car etc. as a security.

The loan amount as in secured cheap personal loans varies from 5000 to 75000 for repayment duration of 25 years. But according to the borrowers affordability, financial situation, monthly income, etc borrower can even get his loan for shorter time period of his choice.

In unsecured personal loan, borrower willingly or unwillingly may not put up his collateral against the loan. Therefore, approval time for the unsecured personal loan is quite less compared to the secured personal loans. Therefore, in the unsecured personal loan, the loans amount ranges from 1000-25,000 for the loan term of 6 months-10 years.

People with bad or poor credit like CCJs, IVA, bankruptcy, default or arrears can apply for the cheap personal loans. Borrowers with bad credit history can also avail the opportunity to improve the credit score by restricting themselves to the loan terms.

With cheap personal loan, borrower can buy his personal needs at cheaper interest rates and easy repayment options.

Martin Andrews is offering loan and financial advice on Cheap Personal Loans UK for quite a long time. He is working as the senior financial consultant with Cheap Personal Loans UK. To find Cheap personal loans, Cheap personal loans UK,Cheap unsecured personal loans,unsecured personal loans visit http://www.cheap-personal-loans-uk.net/Arden Blog97199
Alysia Blog36650

Does Your Home Business Irritates Your Family And Friends?

Hi Wealthbuilder.

Like it or not, home business is here to stay. In fact, home business has always been around, taking different forms, different products. i remembered when i was a kid, my mum used to bring me along to those house parties, in my neighbourhood. As a kid,I had fun, because there were plenty of food and games and other kids to play with, at those parties. However, I never got to understand why were there parties. By the way, those were tupperware parties..!

And when i was growing up, I always hear my relatives whispering to my mum about some healthfoods sold thru some pyramid scheme, until it was banned in Singapore. Nevertheless, home business never really went away.

Over the last few years, during the economy downturn, many working professionals were laid off. I was one of those. Being trapped in a situation where either you are too "expensive" to be hired, or you are over-qualified for a more junior role. Meeting up with old friends and relatives suddenly gave me a feeling, that everybody is doing some "underground" business. MLM selling healthcare, beautycare, skincare, household products, magnetic beds...you name it! And suddenly, all relatives whom you never knew existed, or long forgotten, start calling you over the phones, appearing just before dinners! The best winners were coffee-joints like Starbucks, because there were many sales presentations going on. Dell was also a winner, because many people needed a laptop for their mobile business.

I, out of desperation and curiosity, joined one. i paid a joining fee of about $150 to buy some sales literature package, which contains of pricinglists, catalogues and some other documents. Next I was asked to attend some motivational talks, conducted by some "gurus" who looked like property agents in cheap suits, and spoke broken English. I was then given a lot of pep talks, asked to submit all my friends' cellphone numbers,etc. Before I went any deeper, I found myself a decent job. I am a sales manager in the IT industry over 10 years now, and have a MBA. And so I walked out of the MLM engagement.

About a year ago, i left my last job due to political reasons in the organisation, and I re-visited the idea of a home business. I also ponder upon the fact that working professionals should always set aside time to build a secondary income or what i called it Secret Income. If you look around you, all those mergers/acquisitions, hostile takeovers, corrupted CEOs causing huge giant companies to come to a standstill, are just making our jobs more vulnerable. So i strongly believe that we should always build a secret income somewhere and somehow..

I think the internet is a good place to build our secret income, because you dont actually put a face to the business. You don't go out there to meet friends and hardsell them. You could share with them your website and your online business, but you don't sell to them, which might turn them off. And if you so decide to keep this as your secret in your studyroom, just like i did, so be it! Your boss don't need to know about your online business. And that is why I started SecretInternetWealth.com..

Still in its infancy, it sure beats having to buy many coffee sessions, with people who maybe more interested in the coffee than your proposition. And everything is pretty much automated, and that's what i like about online business. I promote quite a few programs, and one of them is CBmall, an online mall selling 40,000 Clickbank products. Clickbank do the transactions for you, and pays you your commissions each time a sale is closed. You don't meet the customer, and you don't even issue an invoice!

If you are seriously looking for money making opportunities, to build your secret wealth. Drop by my site and i am very sure you would find something you like to start with. Thank you . Cheers!

Regards

Terence Chan
http://www.secretinternetwealth.com
http://www.secretinternetwealth.com/cbmall

Terence Chan spends the last 10 years as a sales professional in the ERP solutions industry. Has a MBA from California State University. He believes that working professionals should always build their Secret income.Alecia Blog4497
Ally Blog36346

Are You Struggling To Make Money Online? Heres Help

Do you wish there was an easier way to make money online? Of course we all do. But while there are dozens of ways to make money online, still 95% of those starting up internet businesses fail.

One of the easiest ways to make money online is selling digital products. Digital products could be an ebook, an MP3, video or software. Selling these products is fast, easy and commands big profit margins. No inventories to watch, delivery trucks are non-existent and most of all it works 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. Really an entrepreneurs dream come true.

What are the exact steps involved to make money online with selling digital products? The following steps have been proven to be effective:

1. Choose the right product.

The first thing that you need to do is get a product that you can sell. Be certain that you choose the right product to sell. In choosing a product, you can either create your own or sell other peoples product. However, you must ensure that the product you will sell is in demand and that it is something that many people want or need.

You may check clickbank.com to see and get a feel of what products are in high demand. If youve been in the internet for three to four months and have been subscribing for those newsletters from sites you visited, then you may now have an idea of what topics attract large crowds. Subjects on golf, search engine traffic, weight loss, marketing, adsense, dog training, personal improvement and make money online have proven well overtime. There are some niche subjects which also have been drawing huge following.

Remember, the number of people looking for that particular topic, product or subject is extremely important. You cant make money online if only a handful is interested with that product you are trying to sell. The number of competitors also plays an important role. As much as possible, choose an area with lesser competition. If youre just starting out, it is hard to compete with guys who are the McDonalds of the industry. If youre a bit sophisticated, there are tools available to figure this out. You can try the keyword tools and look for topics that have been searched by volumes and volumes. These tools also provide you with the number of competing websites. There is wordtracker.com, inventory.overture.com that you can start with.

If you dont want to create your own product, you can easily find hundreds of products with master resale rights. What are master resale rights (MRR)? If you own a product with MRR, you have the right to sell it to others and keep all the profit for yourself! With master resale rights, the person who buys from you can also get the resale rights to the product.

There are also products with private label rights. Private label rights give you freedom to alter the product or change the content and put your name on it as the author or originator. You may try warriorforum.com and look at the warriors special offer (WSO) for great deals on resale rights.

2. Build your website.

Now dont scratch you head yet. You will not be building a full blown website but a very simple three page site. The pages are: Sales letter Page, Thank You Page and the Download Page. Trial and completely free web building softwares are available for download. Theres the 123WYSIWYG and NVU which are both easy to use. If youre not that tech driven then you can hire some college kids in your neighborhood who might be good at building websites. Or you can try elance.com and rentacoder.com to find somebody to do this. Just focus on your goal to make money online.

To accept payment, just use Paypal. Its easy to get. Using the standard Paypal button is okay. Paypal will ask you for the redirect page, in this case, use your Thank You Page. Don't put the download link there. Put an opt-in in box instead. Say that you will send the download link in the email. The opt-in box is extremely important if you want to build a business. You will have the chance to capture customer information here. You can make money online over and over again once you have a large list of customers.

In the email that goes out after a person subscribes to your opt-in, you will tell them where to download the product. Your download page should contain a link to your product with a few directions on how to download and how to use it. If you are selling an ebook in PDF format, tell them that Adobe Reader is required and point them where they can download it.

3. Generate traffic.

Once you have chosen your product and created your website, you must attract visitors. You cannot make money online if your site doesnt have visitors. You can get traffic to your website in many different ways. However, you want to be certain that you bring in the right kind of traffic. What is the right kind of traffic? Targeted! You want visitors to come to your site because they want to, not because they are forced to. You want visitors that are interested in your product.

One of the ways to attract traffic is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is a set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages. Yahoo and Google are the top two sites where most of the web searches come from. Experts estimate that Google account for 45% of the searches while Yahoo gets 30%. In order to make money online, your website must be listed in the top 30 results of the search engines. Do you think anyone would bother to look on page 97 of the results? or page 110?

Your sites ranking on the search engines will depend on how optimized it is with the keywords you choose and the number of competition it has. The lesser the competition for the specific keyword, the higher the chance of your site to get to the top of the search engines and the chance to make money online is significantly increased.

Another way to get visitors to your site, and this is the quickest one, is by pay per click advertising (PPC). You can try the Google adwords program, Miva and Goclick. Be very careful, however, as PPC advertising may burn your pockets and your plan to make money online would be affected. Make sure to set your daily budget when doing PPC.

These three simple steps to make money online when followed would get you the results you want. There are dozens of ways to make money online. What separates the successful online entrepreneur from a failure is focus and consistency of efforts. Most of the people starting to make money online get sidetracked with every new program that comes to them. If you want to make money online, choose one specific way, and then follow that way until you succeed. Dont jump from program to program. Author is giving ebooks at http://www.homebusinesstoday.name

Alan Ocab specializes in teaching real people how to start profitable Internet businesses. To get instant access to some of his most profitable marketing campaigns, strategies, tools, and resources, visit his work at home website at http://www.grandstart.com.Agneta Blog96078
Anjela Blog10063

Does DIY Help You Save Money in Your Wedding?

Planning wedding is a stressful period of time.

If you are planning your wedding now, Im sure you may agree with me to a certain extent.

There could be may sources of stresses.

For me, money is definitely one great stressor.

Unless someone is sponsoring my wedding, money is always an issue and still is now.

Next stressor could be from mother-in-lawHahamany married men will raise up both hands and legs to agree with me.

There is one person who men can never offendand you know who I am referring to.

There are many instances I disagree with what my mother-in-law saidbut it is forever so hard to say No, I disagree.

You try doing that and your married life will never be a peaceful one.

There are always topics for disagreementFamily practicesfurniture designbridal gown designswedding photos

You name itI can say You got it.

I think such challenges are normal for many married couples.

I just had a call from a friend who said that she just couldnt stand her mother-in-law. The on-going battle had been going on for a few years.

Another friend of them also cant stand her mother-in-law as she always put my friend down using nasty words. So, she decided to move out of her housesoon

Would you want your mother-in-law to prepare buttered bread and a bottle of chicken essence for you every morning?

Would you want your mother-in-law to treat you like a friend and discuss matter with you and at the same time taking care of your feelings?

Would you want your mother-in-law to cook for you every day without any complaint?

My mother meets all 3 criteria

Talking about stress, my mother doesnt give us any. She left us alone to live our own lives.

However, there will still be stress from other aspects of our lives.

health.caloriescount.comThese are 5 things you can do right now to relieve stress:

1. Talk to your partner and tell him you just need a listening ear.
2. Massage your partner and get him to do the same thing for you.
3. Go for a jog or a slow walk.
4. Listen to relaxing music.
5. Take a nap and a day break.

Jhong Ren runs http://www.romance-fire.com My Wedding Blog - an online wedding diary that gives more than just the usual tips and advice on a daily basis. Check out http://www.romance-fire.com now and by all means leave us your comments.Ally Blog86266
Ashly Blog48762

Just What Is Commercial Foreclosure Law?

The cast of characters. Everyone knows what a bank is. Most of us understand what a lender is an institution from whom money is borrowed. Adding the word commercial to describe a lender simply means that the financial entity deals with businesses as opposed to individuals. Blacks Law Dictionary defines commercial loans as: loans made to businesses as distinguished from personal-consumer credit loans. Although a lender could make both commercial and consumer loans, this blog is dedicated primarily to commercial matters.

The field of law. To me, commercial foreclosure law refers to the rules and procedures applicable when a business defaults on a loan secured by some kind of collateral. So, if you work for an institution that loaned money to a business, and if the borrower defaulted under the terms of the loan agreement, then commercial foreclosure law provides the judicial framework for the protection of your rights. Typically, those rights involve the ability to collect money owed by the borrower through the sale of the loan collateral.

Collateral. Blacks states that collateral is property pledged as security for the satisfaction of a debt. If a business defaults on a loan, the lender can initiate a foreclosure action to compel the sale of the loan collateral and therefore collect the amounts owed by the borrower through proceeds from the sale. There are all kinds of business-related collateral. Perhaps the most recognizable is real estate the land a business owns. Some of the most interesting cases, however, deal with personal property collateral, which can be any property imaginable that is owned by a business a fleet of cars, office furniture or intangibles such as accounts receivable.

Lien. A lien is a description of an encumbrance on property: a claim . . . on property for payment of some debt. Blacks. In the context of my blog, a lien arises by written contract between a lender and a borrower either a real estate mortgage agreement or a personal property security agreement. The lien granted by a borrower to a lender gives a lender the right to foreclose upon the subject property (collateral) for payment of the debt in the event of a default.

Commercial foreclosure. Turning again to Blacks, a foreclosure is defined, in part, as the enforcement of a lien . . . or mortgage . . .. Paraphrasing Blacks, foreclosure is the legal process by which real or personal property subject to a lien is sold in satisfaction of a debt. To foreclose means to terminate a borrowers rights in the subject property. A foreclosure that is commercial merely refers to the termination of a business borrowers rights in its property.

A form of collection. Commercial foreclosure law is a special kind of collection law. Its a body of rules governing how banks and financial institutions recover money by asserting rights in, and selling, collateral that a business granted to secure the loan. Its the set of legal principles applicable to a lender needing to collect money owed by a business, which failed to make its loan payments or otherwise defaulted under the terms of the loan documents. If any of these matters are relevant to what you do for a living, I welcome your visits to my blog and hope that you will e-mail me with your questions or comments.

John D. Waller is a partner at the Indianapolis law firm of Wooden & McLaughlin LLP (http://www.woodmclaw.com). He publishes the blog Indiana Commercial Foreclosure Law at http://commercialforeclosureblog.typepad.com. Johns phone number is 317-639-6151, and his e-mail address is jwaller@woodmclaw.com.Adrian Blog14854
Analise Blog66731

Government Benefits Helping You In Retirement

Unless youve managed to build up a large private pension or have a great deal of savings, its not always easy to get by in retirement when youre no longer earning. There are various ways in which the government can help give people of pension age enough money to live on heres a concise guide to some of the main benefits.

State pension this is available to men over 65 and women over 60 (increasing to 65 by 2020), although eligibility for the full state pension depends on whether you or your spouse/partner have accumulated sufficient qualifying years through national insurance contributions (NICs). Youll need to have worked approximately 90% of your adult working life in order to do so. People who have been out of work to bring up children or care for other family members are given Home Responsibilities Protection to make up for lost NICs, and people who receive jobseekers allowance and income support will also be given credits while claiming benefit. If you dont have enough NICs to be eligible for the full basic state pension, but have at least 25% of the qualifying years, youll receive an amount somewhere between the minimum and the maximum. If you have less than 25%, you normally wont be eligible to claim any state pension, but you may be able to get financial help in other ways, such as pension credit or the Over 80 pension.

Pension credit you may qualify to receive pension credits to top up your income if it is very low. Pension credits are made up of two elements: guarantee credits and savings credits. Guarantee credits are available to single people over 60 who have an income of less than 114.05 per week, or couples over 60 with an income of less than 174.05 per week. If eligible, youll receive top-ups to bring your income up to these levels. Savings credits are available to individuals over 65 whose weekly income is less than 159 or couples over 65 whose weekly income is less than 233. If you qualify, youll receive 17.88 per week if youre single or 23.58 if youre a couple. Payments can be made directly into your bank account. Other benefits are not taken into consideration when calculating eligibility, and you may also qualify to receive other benefits if youre on pension credits, such as housing and council tax benefits.

Over 80 pension if youre over 80 and on a low income because you dont get the basic state pension or receive less than 50.50 per week from your state pension, and as long as youve lived in the UK for at least 10 years up to your 80th birthday, youll be able to claim an over-80 pension, which will top up your income to 50.50 per week. It is considered taxable income and will be included as part of your income if you apply for other benefits. Again, you can receive payments directly into your bank account.

Cold weather payments it can be very expensive trying to keep your home warm enough during periods of extremely cold weather. If youre on a low income, the government can provide cold weather payments to help you pay your fuel bills. If the temperature drops to 0 degrees Celsius or below for seven days in a row between 1st November and 30th March, youll automatically receive payments if youre eligible normally when youre also receiving pension credit.

Winter fuel allowance people aged over 60 can claim winter fuel allowance to help heat their home. The amount varies depending on personal circumstances, up to a maximum of 300. Youll automatically receive your allowance with your pension payments if you receive a pension. If youre not receiving a pension, youll need to contact the government Pension Service in order to apply. It has a winter fuel payment department for processing claims.

Bus pass when you reach 60 youll be able to apply for a bus pass from your local council, allowing free off-peak travel across the country. The application process varies between council areas. Get in touch with your local council to find out how to apply.

Free or concessionary television licence everyone over the age of 75 is entitled to a free television licence, which covers anyone else also living at the same address. People aged 60 or over living in residential care homes can apply for a concessionary licence fee of 5 through the administrator of care home in which they live.

Benedict Rohan Website: http://www.mortgagenation.co.ukAnetta Blog97040
Alexi Blog86986

Retailing Secrets

Have you ever wondered if what you know about Retailing is accurate? Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on Retailing.

Secret #1 Retailing is a exciting, liquid art form, not a cut & dried science!

However, there are 3 objectives that are cut in stone at all times!

Objective #1. Get the money!
Objective #2. Get the money!
Objective #3. Get the money!

Your mission is to separate your customers from their money - on the spot. That means at the first opportunity, not the second or third chance that might never come. How do we do this? What's the secret?

Simple, make them an offer they can't refuse!

Retailing is a lot like baseball. All the coach is concerned about is getting all his players to first base. (He doesn't tell them to swing for the fences and try to hit a home run).

How does this translate to retailing? Go for the quick/easy sales, go for the volume, not the high prices. A common mistake for newcomers to the business is that they think they're supposed to double or triple their cost on everything. If Sam Walton thought this way, people never would have heard of WalMart. Very few realize that if they pay $7, they're better off selling it for $12 each or 2 for $20, capturing new customers & CASH.

Cash is king, and the retailer must convert to cash at every opportunity. Live each retailing day like it is your last! The benefits of cash flow are too numerous to mention here, but the consumer must see new merchandise everytime they come into the store. Forget about percentages, margins, and markup, and collect as many profit dollars as possible in one day - everyday!

Believe it or not, it's even OK to sell below cost when necessary. Nobody can make a profit on every item, everyday - Sears can't do it, Penny's can't do it, we can't do it, and you can't do it, but that's OK - it's the big picture that counts, get a growing customer base and make them offers they can't refuse!

Always remember, CASH IS KING! Always, always, always get the cash -- NOW!!!

Secret# 2 Look at your profit picture as a group of items coming from each supplier rather than individual items coming from that supplier.

In other words, focus on how much money you have already made on that order that came in, rather than focusing on the items that are left over and haven't sold. Sell off those remaining items at any price because at this point they are 100% profit! So if 60% of the merchandise sold itself and paid for the whole order, sell the other 40% at any price necessary to get that remaining 100% profit money in your pocket as fast as possible.

Your bank account doesn't care if the dollars in came from merchandise sold at a profit or at cost or at below cost. Again, all we care about is collecting as many dollars as possible each and every day.

It doesn't make any difference if some items in a shipment don't sell and we actually throw them away (donate to charity and take a tax write off), as long as, WE MADE OUR PROFIT ON THE STUFF THAT DID SELL!

P.S. - you might change your mind about which suppliers are really giving the best deals!

Secret #3 The Lease Trap

How do you spell "lease"?

I spell it "L-A-W-Y-E-R-S"!

Many entrepreneurs make a nice profit until they sign a lease and are then obligated by the terms of that lease. Paying rent is not recommended if your business can operate for free - out of your house, car, selling on the job, house parties, consignment, fundraisers, street fairs, etc.

If rent must be paid, a month to month agreement is recommended. If a lease must be signed, get a lawyer on your team first - tell your lawyer you want some kind of an "out" clause - before you sign!

Secret #4 Taking a booth at the local fund raiser (church, school, etc) usually pays off big time! Buyers love to support the event & go there to spend money. Booths are cheap? 10% of sales or very low rent, check 'em out! When you're there, make sure to network with other exhibitors and find out about other events, street fairs, etc.

Secret #5 "I just got ripped off"! How do you handle it?

Answer - Amortize it! Always look at the big picture.

Say you lost $300 today - well that doesn't mean you're going to loose $300 every day. Take that $300 loss and decide how many more years you're going to be in business. Let's say your answer is 10 more years - well that means you're going to make $30 per year less for the next 10 years. The big picture says you loss $300 at the end of being in business 10 years later! Not bad at all now.

We already know ahead of time that we're going to have good days and bad days, so when a bad day comes along, don't let it ruin your whole day because we already knew that a bad day is going to come along now an then. Keep your personal emotions, especially fear, out of your business.

Always do the right thing in the next 5 minutes, have faith, truly believe everything's going to be ok, and sleep good at night, or, if you can't do that, consider getting out of the business.

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

Secret #6 - What's the single biggest reason a business will fail?

Answer - Undercapitalization. In simple words - not enough money for the scale of operation. (The second reason for failure is not enough experience, but with "enough" money behind you, most people can learn to survive.)

How much money is enough? That depends on the expenses involved. It's obvious that less money is needed for a flea market than for a retail store, but what's not so obvious?

Let's talk about a major ingredient - inventory. Does the appearance of your inventory make you look like an amateur or a pro? Customers don't like to give their money to an operation that looks like it may not be there tomorrow, instead, they're happy to give their money to a successful operation that will be around for many more years to come.

Translation - have the faith & the good sense to give yourself the best odds at winning, not the worst! Make a 110% commitment to yourself and absolutely jam pack your business with as much selection/inventory as you can possibly afford (even borrow) to maximize the odds of having the selection & professional appearance to make a sale!

Some people think they're being smart with minimal inventory purchases/displays, I think they're cutting their own throat! We see it all the time - minimal orders bring back minimal results! HOW COULD IT BE OTHERWISE? Put your money into inventory/bigger selection, where it can give you a return of 30% plus per week instead of letting it sit in the bank earning 2% per year!

Secret #7 - What about taking advantage of discounts, should they be taken or should I hold on to my money?

Discounts are a HUGE factor! Yes, positively, absolutely, of course, si, aqui, for sure, no doubt, always, always, always go for discounts, did I forget to say YES?

There are two ways to make money in retailing. One way is when you sell something. The other way is when you buy something. Buying enough to qualify for a discount is the same thing as putting that discount money in your pocket, and your pocket is where that money is supposed to be!!!

Only FEAR of not selling that product stops the retailer from buying larger quantities and coming from fear will not lead to making good business decisions. In reality, when the buying cost is lowered, the selling price is substantially lowered, driving sales up beyond the beginners expectations.

Put the right shoe on the right foot - focusing (without fear) on buying at the best price is more important than focusing on the selling price because the cost will determine the risk factor and the selling price possibilities.

Secret #8 - How do you figure out a "break even"?

Very few people in business know how to figure out what their break even point is, or what it will be when they open their business - a big, big mistake because the break even is the foundation that determines a risk and profit basis! Don't try to build your business without understanding your foundation first.

Let's start with a very simple break even proposition. Judy is considering selling earrings at the local swapmeet. Let's say she buys earrings from her distributor at an average cost of $.30 cents each and she plans on selling them for $1, and her only fixed business expense is the rent of $28 per day.

How many earrings must Judy sell to break even? Well out of each dollar brought in, .30 cents is the cost of product/earrings and .70 cents is left over which is the gross profit, which is used to pay the rent - so how many units of .70 cents are needed to pay the rent? Simply divide the rent of $28 by .70 cents which equals 40 units. So 40 pair of earrings must be sold in 8 hours at only $1 each to pay the cost of the product and rent. 40 pair divided by 8 hours is only 5 pair or $5 per hour income. Judy is now relieved to know that she should have no trouble at all breaking even.

How much profit can Judy make for herself? Well Judy thinks that with the $1 selling price she might sell 50 pair of earrings per hour, that's 400 pair per 8 hour day. We just learned that Judy's break even is 40 pair of earrings, so that means that the other 360 pair (400 minus 40) is all profit after we subtract the cost of product. So subtracting the .30 cents cost, leaves .70 cents profit X 360 pair = $252 pure net profit in Judy's pocket! Judy likes this information very much. She figures that even if her estimate is only 50% correct, she'll still do nicely.

Well over the past several months Judy has done quite well at the swapmeet, she expanded her product line into all kinds of costume jewelry and accessories, and is now considering expansion by opening a retail store in the mall with 1 or 2 employees, open 7 days a week (she plans to keep her business going at the swapmeet). But Judy is a smart business person because she wants to know ahead of time what her break even will be? ...She wants to know if she has a chance to make a lot of money? ....Or is the deck stacked against her and she'll lose a lot of money?

How does Judy figure out a break even for a retail store with different kinds of expenses and cost variables?

Judy needs to arrive at a sales volume figure needed to pay all the bills, so first she carefully adds up ALL the fixed expenses. She did NOT include "one time" expenses required to get the store open as these will be amortized over a long period of time.

Judy multiplied all monthly expenses by 12 months/year, and added these to all weekly expenses which she had multiplied by 52 weeks/year. Suggestion - add: the LEAST amount one must get out of the business for oneself; add $100 per week for misc; add 15% to payroll; add $100 per week for pilferage; etc.) Now she divided ALL the expenses by 52 weeks, and divided again by the number of days of operation. This is the DAILY fixed cost of operation. Let's say this comes to $300 per day.

How much does Judy have to sell to break even? Well it's not all profit is it. How much out each dollar is gross profit? If Judy pays $6.50 for an item and sells it for $9.99, her margin of profit is 35%. If 35% is her overall gross profit for all items sold, divide the daily fixed expenses by .35 to determine how much must be sold to "break even". So, $300 divided by .35 = $857, or round off to the higher cost of $900 per day is the answer!

If the business is open 10 hours per day, divide $900 by 10 hours = $90 per hour break even. Does Judy think it can bring in $90 each hour on the average? If she thinks not, she shouldn't open that business. If she thinks it's no problem, let's take a look at the potential of that business.

Based on traffic, product selection, pricing and other considerations, Judy "guestimates" it can bring in $200 an hour on average, so how much money can she make? Well we know that the first $90 sold per hour is needed to break even, so that means there is $110 brought in past the break even point at 35% profit - so $110 X .35 = $38.50 profit per hour X 10 hours per day = $385 per day profit for Judy before amortization of her one time store opening expenses and personal taxes.

Judy is feeling really good about the numbers. She now knows that if her "guesstimate" is off by as much as 50%, she's still ok because she's still breaking even, and as a bonus, she also knows that her margin of profit with costume jewelry purchased from her distribution contracts gives her a much, much wider profit margin than 35%!

Secret #9 - Can you name a little known business that can net you over $50/hour and you can work as many flexible hours as you choose? Hints: there's no selling, no employees, no rent or overhead, no mlm or networking, no house parties.

..To be continued...

Your comments are appreciated.

Copyright (c) Ronald T. Brooks, BS, JD 2006
Profits4u2 - Lerarning Center

Ronald Terre Brooks is a retired lawyer, qialified MCSE, programmer and internationally known entertainer. He is currently living on the Costa del Sol and operates several websites. His learning Center website teaches Internet Marketing and WebMaster skills to "newbie" and Professionals alike. It is a membership site, but there is a free "Gold" membership category where basic skills can be obtained by anyone. To visit or join: http://www.Profits4u2.com.Alane Blog63085
Avis Blog69516

Writing a Working Business Plan

Many women are so confused by the words - "Business Plan". What is it? Who do I show it to? Do I really need it? What is it really going to do for me?

A business plan is a written blueprint for your business. It describes a summary of what your business is about and it's goals. It also outlines how your business will function. The term "business plan" was first developed by bankers who wanted a detailed report of how a business would result in profits before they would make a decision on lending money. Today, no business banker will even entertain a business loan application without a business plan.

In a nutshell, the answer is yes, you really do need a business plan if you really want to build a solid foundation under your home-based business.

I guess the reason so many women procrastinate in doing a business plan is because they think they have to come up with some imaginary figures and statistics about their business which is of course very scary for anyone. This type of plan is known as an Executive Business Plan. This plan is shown to banks, SBA and other lenders who you may apply to for a substantial loan. Usually, this type of business plan must show a 3-5 year projection of how much money your business would make if they should lend you a specific sum of money. Although you will need this type of business plan should you wish to expand your business, the most important thing for you to know now is where you will be in the next 3,6,9 and 12 months. One of the best form of business plans to start out with is the "Working Business Plan". This plan answers the 5 "W's" - Who, What, Where, When and Why.

There is no pre-required length that a Working Business Plan should be. Just remember that you aren't writing to impress, you are writing to address the important issues of starting your business. This plan is just for your planning purposes and can be expanded later on into a full executive plan. The following outline will help you in processing your thoughts and writing your Working Business Plan.

1. Mission Statement - What is the goal of your business. What purpose does it serve.

2. Objective - What will the outcome be for your business as a result of your mission. (ex: K.G. enterprises will gross over $50,000 it's first year with a 5% error margin on its documents).

3. Management - Who will run the business and what qualifications does the person have. What additional skills or resources are needed? What are the names of others that might be able to serve as mentors or help you in grooming your business for success?

4. Service/Product - What products or services are being offered? How will they be produced. If you are selling a product, how much of the product will you need in stock? Do you have the start-up capital needed to purchase the produce? If no, how will you raise the capital needed?

5. Customers - Who are your customers? What area are they in? Is this a service or product they will want to buy? Do a typical profile of a repeat customer. 6. Competition - Who are your competitors? Where are they located? What are their prices? What services or products do they sell? How could you do better?

7. Marketing - How will you market your business? How much money will you need to market your business? How is your competition marketing their business? Do you need business cards, brochure, stationery, fliers etc.?

8. Office Set-up - What are your daily office procedures, what will you do each day that will result in the sale of your service or product? What bookkeeping system will you use and how often will you input your information in the system? Do you need a bookkeeper? What supplies do you need? What type of furniture do you need? What office equipment will you need? Where will your office be?

9. Finances - HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU NEED FOR THE FOLLOWING?

$ Your Income $ Advertising/Promotion $ Bank Fees $ Business Insurance $ Business Lease/Rent $ Internet (include website, hosting etc.) $ Supplies $ Postage $ Printing $ Telephone $ Training $ Utilities $ Marketing/Advertising $ Equipment $ Furniture

10. Networking - Who needs to know about your new venture and why? What contacts do you need to have? Why do you need to know them? What can they help you with?

Contact Management

Establish a good contact management system for yourself. Today, keeping a list of contacts on paper is not efficient. A good contact management software will be needed. If you currently use MS Office, you should have MS Outlook already installed and it will serve the purpose nicely. Other popular contact management software are ACT and Goldmine. Regardless of what contact system you have you must be willing to update your system at least twice per week.

Evaluate how you will manage you contact system. Make sure to schedule this in your planner or palm.

Establish a good contact management system for yourself. Today, keeping a list of contacts on paper is not efficient. A good contact management software will be needed. If you currently use MS Office, you should have MS Outlook already installed and it will serve the purpose nicely. Other popular contact management software are ACT and Goldmine. Regardless of what contact system you have you must be willing to update your system at least twice per week. Evaluate how you will manage you contact system. Make sure to schedule this in your planner or palm.

11. Sales - The number of clients you service or products you sale will give you a true picture as to whether or not you are having success with your business. But first, you must have a measurable sales goal in achieving this success. Start by evaluating where you want to be in sales for the first 3 months, 6, months, 9 months or one year. By doing this you will be able to re-evaluate your business plan every three months and determine if you need to improve in marketing etc.

12. Starting Date - Set a starting date for when you want to begin your business or put into place this working business plan. Make sure you have printed material available for all services or products offered. Also evaluate and follow-up with yourself daily for the first month to ensure that you are following your own plan. After 30 days, follow-up on a weekly basis and then monthly from that point on.

13. Remember, no plan will work unless you are willing to put it into action!

Trina Newby is President and Founder of Women About Biz, a powerful and effective membership-based network for Businesswomen. Let us show you how to grow your business at Women About Biz.Adriana Blog46079
Anica Blog57213

Dont Wait, Avail Fast Cash Loan for Your Short Term Needs

You might have come across a situation when an unexpected cash requirement crops up in your life. You seek for a loan but cant afford because of high value collateral demand and high interest rates. In this helpless circumstances cash loan will be the best option to meet your short term cash needs.

Usually a short term cash loan is taken when an emergency comes at the time when you are over with your monthly finances and you cannot wait for your next months salary. A short term cash loan is the most apt choice at this situation. With this loan you can pay for urgencies like clearing education or medical bills, financing for holiday trip, celebrating an occasion or any other purpose that cannot be stayed behind.

Short term cash loans are meant for your urgent requirements, so they are readily available and can be availed in a quick and convenient way. You can get instant cash loan simply by filling an online application form. Your application form will be approved just by giving out small details about your employment details, credit history, identification proof etc. Other than that you are not required to give much information. Thus, the approval process is short and fast. Visiting lenders personally and contacting them kills a lot of time. Internet provides you links to various online lenders offering short term cash loans, thus saving your time and money.

Short term cash loans are available to all types of borrowers. These loans are usually provided without any credit check so bad credit and no credit holders need not worry about their qualification for the loan.

With a short term cash loan you will get an amount ranging from 80 to 1,000. The repayment term normally varies from 8 days to a month and can further extend depending upon your convenience. The lender keeps your post-dated check of the repayment in advance as collateral against the loan. This is obligatory because the lender needs some kind of security on their part.

Since cash loans are provided for short term, you might find the interest rate a bit higher. But with proper research, you can find a lender that will fulfill your fund requirement with interest rate and repayment suitable to your financial position.

Forget last minute mess, your urgent cash need will now be satisfied with quick and easy short term cash loans.

Olivia Maaret loans have recently began to play a strong part in deciding the financial future of general population. olivia maaret can help you find the best loan at best interest rates. To find Online cash loan,online payday cash loan,online personal cash loan visit http://www.cash-loans-online.co.ukAnabelle Blog58945
Anna Maria Blog92300

Learn the Importance of Swimming Pool Safety

Every year, a lot of kids die from drowning. Numerous drowning deaths take place in residential swimming pools. For this reason it is vital that you not only learn the importance of pool safety, but also to learn how to put it into practice.

However, when it comes to swimming pool safety, a large number of adults are misinformed. A lot of these adults think that as long as their pools are equipped with safety equipment and devices, their kids are safe. Do not have faith in this common mistaken belief. It could be the greatest mistake of your life. In addition to pool safety equipment, you should use your common sense.

If you are looking for pool accessories that will help you in pool safety, you may want to consider buying lifejackets, arm floaties, or baby floats. While lifejackets are most commonly used with boating, you can get smaller lifejackets that are perfect for swimming pools. For infants, a baby float is an excellent way to enjoy the water. Arm floaties are perfect for kids of all ages.

In most pool supply stores, you can find a large assortment of pool toys. These include swim rings, beach balls, basketball hoops and volleyball nets. If your kids are playing a water game, you need to keep a close eye on them. Remember that the competitiveness in a swimming pool can be dangerous or even deadly.

There are also pool fixtures. These items include deep end diving boards and pool slides. These items are typically securely fastened to the pool or the side of the pool. Pay very close attention to those that are using these items. A lot of young kids believe that they look fun. If a young, non-swimmer uses a pool slide or deep end diving board, a tragic accident can happen.

Swimming pool safety does not just mean keeping an eye on your children, but it also includes making sure that pool toys and accessories are in the proper working order.

Alex Fir shares a wealth of information on his website Swimming Pool Covers. To read more about this popular pool accessory go to http://www.swimmingpoolsguide.info/Alexis Blog83774
Ashli Blog65690

Do Not Let The Negative Hold You Back!

One of the most fantastic things about making money online is that the cost of starting your own business is so low. It is possible to start out your work at home venture with no out of pocket costs. All you really need is a computer and an Internet connection. You don't need to hire anyone, depend on anyone; you can do it yourself!

More people are looking into working from home today, than ever before. The great thing about this is that there are more opportunities for a work at home business than ever before. All you need is a desire to make money on the Internet, and choose from the unparelled number of choices in how to go about starting your business.

Some of the more popular ways of making money online is to get paid for surveys or "surfing" the web. It pays quickly, but is limited in the effort that is required. A much better way to make money, and really less work, is to set up your own website and join affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs consists of a system set up by various merchants that will pay you a considerable commission when a paying customer signs up through your website. It really is a "win-win" situation for the affiliate and the merchants, and a great way to make money.

Do not worry about setting up your own website, most of these companies have websites coded with your "id", the only thing you need to concentrate on is getting customers to look at these sites. You do this through online or offline advertising. Although it is always a good idea to set up your own website with a variety of offers, as this gives you and your customer more choices.

Once you decide how you want to proceed, you need to set up some type of plan of what your expectations are, and be reasonable about your goals. Making money online is no different than making money offline...you need to take small steps before you run. Build your business slowly; you need to understand that it is very rare to become a millionaire in your first year online (although it has been known to happen).

I have said it before, and it bears repeating, do not let the negative attitude hold you back. You will hear friends and colleagues tell you that all internet businesses are scams, that it cannot be done. If you start thinking like this, then the chances of your success diminishes. You have to believe! Many people give up before giving the opportunity a real effort. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

For every person who believe that making money online is not possible, there are two who prove them wrong! Actually, I believe I read somewhere that those making money online are happy to hear about the ones who believe it is not possible and give up..it means less competition.

Working from home on the internet has changed million of people lives from all over the world! There are no boundaries. It has no educational requirement, no family connections to get the job, no experience is necessary, and anyone from any walk of life can do it.

People from all walks of life are making their dreams come true from their internet businesses. You need a willingness to learn new things, a desire to succeed, and you too can be part of the growing phenomenon known as Internet Marketing!

Nancy Kraska has been involved with internet marketing since September, 2004. For more information visit her directory of Work At Home Ideas and Opportunities at Home Work For You http://www.hmewrk4u.comAlison Blog271
Ariel Blog90118

Website Startup Guide - Mix And Match Your Advertising Offerings

There are literally thousands of people out there right now who want to start their own online business. The problem is where to begin and how to get started.

Oh sure, they know they can buy a domain and a web hosting account, but that is not the problem. The hold up is that they dont know what to sell on their websites that will allow them to make a nice income to supplement the income from their regular jobs.

Day and night, people browse this World Wide Web looking for a hint or an insight that will point them in the direction of the next big thing on the internet.

Lets be honest. Most people who want to start an online business are only looking for enough extra income to pay an extra car payment or to buy some clothes for their kids. Not everyone is looking to get rich online.

Looking For Something To Sell

Most people online who are looking for an opportunity to make money look first to common themes of products they already buy.

If you go to Google and type in flowers for your search, you will find 339 million pages found. If you take the same search to Yahoo, you will still find 202 million results. With that kind of competition, why would anyone want to try to break into that industry as an online entrepreneur?

Suppose the next thought takes the aspiring entrepreneur to jewelry? A Google search will turn up 551 million to Yahoos 261 million pages. Again, why would someone try to tackle such an overcrowded marketplace?

On top of that, as part-time entrepreneurs looking for some extra money, they dont have the time or resources to try to knock heads with these major corporations who run the competing websites in these markets.

Add to that the need to handle actual products and product fulfillment, and your part-time start-up entrepreneur really starts to lose interest. People tend to shy away from product fulfillment related industries. Their homes are already crowded enough without adding retail products to their space.

Something To Sell That Does Not Require A Warehouse or a Huge Investment

It is at about this time the opportunity search changes gears. There are many forks in the road, and the road you choose can be as hard or as easy as you make it for yourself.

Where to go from here:

1. Digital products E-books and Software
2. Product Drop-Shipping
3. Affiliate programs
4. On-site Advertising

Lets look at each one of these individually:

Digital Products E-Books and Software

We all have some kind of knowledge to share. If you determine that you have some kind of knowledge that you can share, then there is likely someone out there in the world who would be willing to pay you to obtain that same knowledge.

E-books are an ideal way to disseminate this information. With the e-book format, there are no printing costs, since your book is stored as a digital file. Self-publishing a digital ebook is not nearly as hard as you might think it would be.

Software is a similar beast. Since it is a digital product, you dont have to cover the costs of packaging and distribution. You can sell your software online, cutting out the middleman, keeping the extra profits for yourself.

Product Drop-Shipping

Some wholesale companies will allow you to buy products from them on a piecemeal basis. Of course, the cost is a bit higher than what it would be if you bought products a pallet at a time, but the convenience to you more than makes up for the additional cost.

The drop-shippers allow you to sell a product to your customers, and then you can take the money you collected from your customer to the drop-shipper. The drop-shipper will ship the product directly to your customer.

In some cases, the drop shipper will even put your own custom label on the outside of the container, making the fact that you used a drop-shipper completely unseen by your customer.

To find wholesale companies who offer drop-shipping services, check these folks out: http://www.vasrue.com/dt/t.php?id=167

Affiliate programs

With an Affiliate program, you can register with a seller, and the seller will give you a unique URL that you can use to promote their products or services. When someone uses your affiliate URL to visit the sellers website, the seller will track that person until the visitor leaves the site. (Some Affiliate sellers will drop a cookie on the computer of the visitor, and if that person returns to the sellers website within one year, then you will get credit for that visitor returning to the sellers website.) If the visitor buys a product or service from the seller, then your account will be credited for bringing a buyer to the website. This will result in your earning a commission for bringing the buyer and seller together.

On-Site Advertising

Both Google and Yahoos Overture services offer an option to webmasters to carry their advertising on your website. When someone clicks a link on your website and visits the advertisers website, then you would get paid a small payment for having connected the potential buyer to the sellers website.

This is a type of advertising that pays you when someone visits the sellers website. Contrast that with the Affiliate program, which pays you when someone buys a product from the sellers website, and then you can see the fine line difference between the two types of advertising.

How Much Can You Make Utilizing On-Site Advertising?

Truth be told, there are a lot of people on the internet who makes tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars per month --- yes, I said, per month --- using only Googles on-site advertising program, called Adsense. The rest of us make hundreds or thousands per month.

The truth is that with Googles contextual advertising program called Adsense, your income is based on what the advertisers are willing to pay for your traffic and how much traffic you can generate.

The Profit-and-Loss Factor for the Advertiser

It is a matter of profit-and-loss for the advertiser. If the advertiser pays one dollar for a visitor, and every 35th visitor buys what the advertiser is selling, then the advertiser is getting one buyer for every $35 spent. If the advertisers profit margin is enough to afford spending $35 to acquire one customer, then the advertiser will feel his advertising is worthwhile, and he will keep on coming back for more advertising.

If on the other hand, the advertiser is only earning a gross profit of $20 per transaction, then he or she will have a hard time justifying the $35 advertising expenditure.

This is why you will find that most Google and Yahoo advertisers are only willing to spend 25 or 50 cents to get one visitor to their website.

And then depending on a number of factors, you will only earn 30-50% of the gross revenue that Google or Yahoo earned for that visitor.

Taking the lowest case denominator approach, 30% of 25 cents is roughly eight cents that you will be paid for each visitor that you send to an advertiser.

Some of these guys who are knocking down ten thousand dollars a month are actually doing so at eight cents per click! What is their secret to success? They are getting thousands of people to visit their website everyday.

The Profit-and-Loss Factor for the Affiliate Seller

On the flip side, let us take a look at the same scenario for the Affiliate seller. Instead of paying for visitors, advertisers are paying for actual sales.

The Affiliate seller knows his or her margin well enough to know that they can afford to pay anywhere from 2-50% of the actual transaction amount to the person who referred the buyer to their website.

The Affiliate seller is not paying for advertising on a gamble, instead, they are paying for advertising on a sure thing.

It is not unheard of to earn $20, $50 or $200 on a single Affiliate sale transaction.

If you are able to convert one person in thirty-five to buyers of an affiliate product or service, you could conceivably make more money with less traffic, than the guys knocking down the big bucks with Adsense.

Mix-and-Match For The Greatest Success

This is really important to your bottom line. If you fail to heed my advice, your website may fail to survive.

Unless you are the owner of a product or service sales website, then you will be relying on the various advertising opportunities to survive.

You are best to mix-and-match your offers for the greatest success. Yes, do set up Google Adsense on your site, but also set up Affiliate programs on your site.

You may sell a few products each week, and the sale from those products might make a good income for you. But, for the people who arrived on your site who are not interested in your main offering, give them another advertisement to click on before they leave. This way, you can get the Pay-Per-Click advertising revenue from those people who chose not to buy the products and services that you are selling through the Affiliate programs.

Diversification Is Your Key To Success

Dont let yourself be fooled by the idea that you can be profitable with only one product or service offering or advertising revenue generator. Many people have entered this medium with a Made For Adsense (MFA) site, and many of those people have gone out of business in just a few months.

Dont put all of your eggs in one basket. Or else, when you fall, you will have nothing to show for all of your hard work.

Ramon Sanchez, writes E-Business articles for Online Cash by Vasrue. Read more E-Business information here: http://www.vasrue.com/dt/t.php?id=168Alys Blog20384
Agata Blog28241

The History Of Audio Books

It's really amazing that you can get the exact value listening to an audio book while doing your normal chores as you would reading it.

Certain experts even say information sinks in more when we are not paying direct attention to them.

But when did this audio book phenomenon really start? In other words, what's the history of audio books?

From all indications, audio books look like a very recent invention, right?

WRONG!

It is very easy to make the assumption that audio books are a recent invention because of the mention of CDs, downloadable digital formats, MP3s, PDAs and other technological jargons each time audio books are discussed. But audio books started a long time ago.

To know how long audio books have been, it is pertinent to understand exactly what audio books are.

Forget about any other jargon you have heard, audio books are simply books that are recorded to be heard, instead of read.

That being the case, such recordings of books in audio formats have been around for a very long time. If you want to be specific, it is safe to say they were first introduced over half a century ago.

It could even be longer, if you include the Library of Congress recordings made especially for the American Foundation for the Blind and distributed free throughout the U.S.

However, according to Robin Whitten, the editor and founder of the only magazine which is dedicated solely to the audio book industry:

Audiofile--http://www.AudioFileMagazine.com, Caedmon (now a subsidiary of Harper Collins Publishers) can be credited to have started the recordings of literature as far back as 50 years ago.

Going further, he said Caedmon was just a small company way back then in New York, which started recording the audio of great authors and poets of the 1950s. Specifically, he said one of the earliest recordings were by greats such as Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Fitzgerald and Robert Frost.

What happened then was that they were simply recorded while doing their own works and made as vinyl records.

But these early recordings can arguably pass off for the first collection of audio books ever.

However, the transition of these book recordings into audiocassette tapes didn't happen until the late 1970s up to the 1980s. From thence, it blossomed until audio books in audiocassette tapes came to be accepted by all and sundry.

For whatever reason however, the audio book phenomenon didn't really kick off until the 1990s.

And with the transition from audiocassette technology into CDs, more people have become interested in audio books.

With the advent of the Internet and its paraphernalia, audio books have now transited from vinyl records, audiocassette taps and CDs into downloadable digital formats that can be listened to with a desktop computer, laptop computer, PDAs, etc.

If you are still interested in "going back in time" you can get the original book recordings that started this audio book industry.

Impossible?

Not really.

Some of those early 1950s analog recordings by Caedmon which were performed by the greats of those days can be purchased today on the Internet.

For example, recently I was able to browse the Internet thoroughly and found the original recording of "The Lord of the Rings" as read by J.R.R. Tolken.

You can find that classic you have always dreamt of in audio book format if you search hard enough on the Internet.

Janet Rusky is an upcoming author who runs one of the best audio book stores on the internet where 7000 titles divided in hundreds of categories are available for immediate download.Adrian Blog14854
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How To Get The Best Holiday Flights

You can save plenty of cash on holiday flights by agreeing to split your flight into stopovers or layovers. When you decide to consent to this, you ought to know that it will take you much longer to get home and back, but you will have a much improved chance of securing public holiday flights at a cheaper rate. Look online, talk to a travel agent or better still a few travel agents, and call the airlines directly. Tell them your destination, date of arrival and departure, and how many places you require. Ask them to attain the top deal they can for your holiday flights.

Don't forget to hunt through every online travel site for the best deal. Take some time to hit upon the best deal by not buying the first tariff you see. Holiday flights are difficult to get at an advantageous price, but it is achievable. At all times please remember to read the fine print. Many discount sites offer huge deals, but if something happens and you can't go for whatever reason, these particular holiday flights usually are non refundable.

You can also save big money on holiday flights by keeping your flight dates open. If you are keen to take off a day early or later than you intended, it may be feasible to obtain cheaper holiday flights. Flexibility is always the key to saving money when it comes to airfare. A good place to look is Lastminute or Cheapflights these often have very good deals which would suit most peoples pockets. If you feel that you also might need a car when you get there are usually numerous amounts to choose from, including one way rentals and pickups from all major American airports.

Remember that holiday flights are frequently over booked, so make sure you confirm your journey with the airline twenty-four hours in advance, and turn up well before time for your flight, and check-in immediately. If someone needs to be unfortunately knocked of the list from an overbooked flight, they will first look to see who has still to turn up and check-in. You don't wish for this to be you.

The airport will be demanding and taxing around holiday flights, so bring your patience with you when you arrive. Give yourself adequate time to get all the way through the airport, get through security, and arrive at your gate as early on as possible. If you have kids, you may be asked to board the aircraft first.

Search around, remain flexible, and you will take the financial hurt and pressure out of holiday flights. The important thing is that you get home, even if it takes you a little longer and you have to take a diversion. The main thing is that you make sure that everything is done well in advance and planned properly if you manage to do this, you will not only save plenty of money but have a much better enjoyable holiday once you get there, so don't panic, just plan correctly.

Mitch Hampson is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Discount Travel Deals so if you would like more information on this subject please checkout his website at http://www.worldtravelnow.info.Alyson Blog60850
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Seven Simple Ways To Save Money On Gas

Looking for ways to save money on gas that wont require you to go out and spend more money just so you can save a few bucks at the pump.

If you have a perfectly good vehicle, then spending $25k on a new hybrid car just so you can save $10 when you fill up at the pump might not be such a good deal.

Also, if youre not the type that wants to install any of those gas saving devices in your car, then this list is for you.

Whether or not you have any mechanical skills, you can use these no brainier methods to start saving money on gas right now even if you dont know how to change a tire.

1 Get A Gas Card

Want a tip that will save you money every single time you fill up at the pump no matter what vehicle you drive? Its a gas card. Just about every major gas station offers their own brand of gas credit card that will allow you to save 3-5% on all your gas purchases at their gas stations. Forget about the branded gas cards and get one that will save you 5% on gas no matter where you fill up, like the Discover Open Road Card. Just remember, pay it off every month or it wont save you any money.

Saving 5% off every gallon of gas means that $3/gallon gas now costs only $2.85 and $4/gallon becomes $3.80. If you have a 25 gallon tank, youd save $3.75 every time you filled up ($3/gallon gas).

A lot of people use a credit card when filling up at the pump anyway since its easy and convenient. You may as well get a gas card so its easy, convenient, and saving you money.

2 Avoid Aggressive Driving

Hitting the gas hard when the light turns green and braking hard will make your car drink gas faster than a drunk at an open bar at a wedding. If you were to drive away from a stop at a more moderate pace, accelerate in traffic more slowly, and anticipate when youre going to need to brake ahead of time so you can do so slowly, youre going to save a lot of gas up to 37% about the same buying a hybrid car but this tip wont cost you anything. (oh yeah, its safer too)

3 Use Your Cruise Control

Personally, I wont buy a car if it doesnt have cruise control, since it means I dont have to worry so much about keeping my speed constant. However, cruise control also had the added benefit of saving you gas too. On average, youll save about 7% more gas than if you dont use cruise control.

4 Slow Down

Sure, going fast can be fun. It can also get you a nice collection of speeding tickets, but more importantly, the faster you drive the more gas you use. Im not saying that you need to drive like your grandmother, but slowing down from 75 to 65 can you 12% on you gas bill, and unless youre driving across the country, the time difference in getting where youre going will be minimal.

5 Stop Idling

Having the car running when its not moving wastes gas.

I remember being taught when I was first learning to drive that you should let your car warm up for a few minutes before driving it anywhere when its cold outside. While that may be true for older cars, modern cars dont need warm up time before being ready to drive. Dont drive like a maniac (see #2) before you car is completely warmed up and youll be fine.

If you going to be sitting and waiting some place without moving for more than about a minute, turn off the engine. It probably goes without saying that if you can avoid rush hour traffic, you should.

Also, one great place to sit and waste gas is your local fast food drive-thru. Get off your lazy butt, get out of your car and go inside to get your food.

6 Plan Ahead

Instead of driving to the gym, going home, driving to work, driving home, driving to the store, and then home again, start combining trips whenever possible. This is really easy to do if you just think ahead. Avoid just spontaneously hopping in the car and driving to the store to pick up some milk and eggs. Think about what else you can do if youre going to be out running errands anyway so that you can avoid another trip later.

5 You got legs useem

Really want to save money on gas? Then use your legs. A lot of trips arent really that far, and while it takes a little longer to walk somewhere than to drive there, its a good chance to get outside, get some fresh air and get some exercise in the process. Its really not necessary to drive absolutely everywhere unless you happen to live in the middle of nowhere. So get yourself a comfortable pair of tennis shoes and start walking instead of driving when you can.

Also, a bicycle is a nice compromise between the two, and can actually be faster to get some places than a car. I remember when I was in college and moved off campus although we lived almost 2 miles from campus, it was a lot faster for me to take my bicycle to go to class than to take my car.

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Cash loans: cash in an instant

Expenses emerge unexpectedly which an individual might not be monetarily prepared. The expenses cannot be avoidable and also to meet them money might run short amid the month. Thus in such situations, you can easily opt for cash loans and borrow the required money to meet the immediate demands. Any person can approve or borrow loans within the same day or before the next payday which ever is possible earlier.

Cash loans can be approved easily because the borrowers are free from pledging collateral. Instead of placing collateral, lenders demand basic desired principles: as applicants should have an active and valid bank account and should be employed on regular terms and conditions. Lender approves cash within seconds when any applicant qualifies with the desired eligibility. Thus instantly the applicants can borrow cash which limits from 100-1200 for a shorter duration without delay. The duration if reimbursement of cash loans is graces to 31 days from the approval date.

Cash loans provide flexible repayment terms to the borrowers if any incongruity occurs while repaying. The repaying term can be extended according to their convenience by informing and paying an extra fee. The fee is excluded from the rate of interest. Cash loans are offered against a slightly higher rate of interest by every lender. But availing a marginal rate is possible by comparing the quotes with the assistance of online, as it provided and facilitate the applicants to approach lenders within less time.

If any lenders qualify with the desired principles then bad credit hardly concerns the lenders. In other words, applicants can borrow loans despite of bad credit tags or records like CCJs, defaults, arrears, late payments and so on.

Cash loans has made life easier and free from worries as it is now possible to meet the urgent demands in the easiest way. Medical bills, electricity bills, car bills, school fees are some ends which you can easily fulfil with the help of cash loans. If you want to gather information related to loan and lenders you can use the online or call the customer care services which is open round the clock.

Antonio Vargas has been associated with Cash Flow Loans. His articles provide you useful knowledge to find the right financial product at the right price. To find Cash loans, Business cash flow loans, Fast cash personal loans, Repayment cash loan flow, Payday cash loan, Cash flow loans visit http://www.cashflowloans.org.ukAndree Blog77874
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Internet Shopping Guide

When shopping on the Internet there are many things to consider, following are some guidelines to keep your experiences a positive one.

Shop online, or brick and mortar!

Many people shop at brick and mortar stores because they feel shipping charges only raise their total cost, however, unless you live in a high density populous like a major city, most often shipping charges cost less than the gasoline required to travel to and back from a brick and mortar store, especially when looking for bargains, which would probably require a stop off at more than two stores for price comparison, and even then when you find the best price, (even if you researched your favorite stores online) you run the risk of a fuel expense only to find your item not in stock, so by the time you actually come home with your item, your fuel expense was probably greater than most fast shipping costs would be. There is also the consideration of time, I live in a rural area where the nearest grocery store is about 12 miles away, and the discount big box retail stores, over 15 miles away, with an average speed limit of 50 mph, it would take approximately 20-25 minutes travel in each direction, around 20 more minutes to identify and locate the specific item(s) in the store, then there is the line at the check out area, depending what time of day/evening you go, it could be as little as 5 minutes and up to 30, as I have waited in check out lines at big box retail stores, so online shopping is not only green, ecologically, but you get more than an hour and a half of your life freed up to do other more desirable activities!

Is it safe to shop online?

Many people still hold on to the idea that online shopping is very risky, however with the implementation of a number of encryption techniques, your personal, and credit card information, is quite secure, but should you still feel a measure of insecurity inputting your credit card information at a website, there are additional steps you can take to insure zero liability on your part. Most credit cards offer a zero liability rider on their cards for any fraudulent charges if you pay a small monthly fee, usually after a 30 - 90 day free trial, in which case any charges that show up on your statement that are not your authorized purchases, will be unconditionally credited back to your card, and an investigation will most likely ensue to try to prevent a reoccurrence.

Once you get past the apprehension of credit card fraud, there are a number of practices that will ensure a positive experience.

Is the lowest price the best deal?

When price comparing different e-commerce stores there are some things to consider, is the item brand new, refurbished, re-packed, a factory second, or even the name brand that is stated, these are all important factors to consider when comparing prices, and many sites will state what grade of merchandise they carry if it is good for business, for instance, I have seen prices for a specific digital camera range from $99.95 to $279.95 for the exact same camera and the msrp was $229.00, so I ask myself, why so high, or so low, if I choose the lowest price am I getting what I would get if I paid the high price? Well obviously the highest price is not one's first choice, but here are some answers, the higher prices might be due to a poor choice of wholesaler or distributor, or a lack of buying power due to low volume sales, or a high overhead that needs to be considered by the merchant, or maybe they are also brick and mortar store and do not want to severely undercut the prices in the actual store with their online prices. Now when evaluating low prices consider buying American made, because there are a number of foreign manufacturers that produce cheap knock offs of the original, which are available at much lower prices than their American counterparts, also check the item listing for very small,(fine print) or similar colored text (almost invisible), stating that it is either refurbished or a factory second, and when buying branded items make sure the item picture reflects the advertised brand name, and is not an inferior knock off, this happens most when shopping for accessories like picture cards, removable mass storage devices, and other types of digital media, and similar accessories. Something else to look out for is the price of shipping, and the geographical location of merchant, for instance, compare the shipping charges for the same item on a few sites, that are located in the same area, if one price is much higher, they might be advertising a low price but make it up in the way of a handling charge added to the shipping charge, also if you narrowed down your choice of sites to just a few, then buy from the one geographically close, which will minimize the shipping charge, an example would be if you live in California, and your narrowed down sites are located in New York, Dallas, and Seattle, the lowest shipping charges would likely be from Seattle, now if there is a site also in California, you might still consider the Seattle site to save on sales tax, provided the company does not also have a physical store in California as well, because then they will also be required to charge sales tax, on the positive side, some merchants might show extremely low prices on items that have been discontinued by the manufacturer, and the merchants want to move excess inventory before they lose their profit margin all together, so checking with the manufacturer, if the item is current, will explain such a low price, or they might be a "wholesale to the public" type merchant with tremendous buying power, and warehouse space in which case the savings are passed to you, another explanation for low prices can be the use of drop shippers, and warehouse co-ops, which reduces the overhead for online merchants because they do not need to tie up thousands of dollars in inventory to make minimums, and the expense to house that inventory, all of which can contribute to lower prices, along with being in a very competitive retail venue.

Feedback and ratings!

There are many opportunities to give feedback or rate your experience with a site. What do you choose, a highly rated store with higher prices, or a store with little or no rating with lower prices, well I for one have many times, passed on offering a rating, by not responding to the email sent, just because of the lack of time, so these should be considered on the lighter side, for instance, a high number of ratings may not all be positive, or they might have lost sight of a customers value because business is so good they no longer feel the need to go the extra mile to make or keep a satisfied customer, on the other hand, no ratings at all might only mean it is a reasonably new store and has not received the customer count of the big guys, but my thought is this, give the little guy a shot, in their pursuit of sales they are more likely to go the extra mile to win over a customer, and possibly offer an incentive to return to them for future purchases.

How to search for your purchase!

I would recommend getting as much information about a product or products from the original manufacturer's website, they usually offer the most comprehensive information about their products and usually a suggested retail price, but generally do not sell direct, but instead provide a list of sites you can purchase from, with that said, consider this, after visiting the manufacturer's site you probably made the decision as to which product model you want to purchase, when doing a search engine search, include the make and model in your search query, rather then a general search term like "fish finder" or "digital camera" this will accomplish a few things, first it will reduce the number of results, and make the results you do get the most relevant, then search engines usually, under these circumstances, will provide a "price compare" link, for instance Google will provide Froogle results, or a Yahoo! Search might provide a Yahoo! Shopping link to a price compared list of possible merchants, and then there are the links like Shopzilla, Price grabber, Next tag, or shop.com, to name a few, these links all provide easy access to price comparing, but be advised that many of these results are "sponsored" which means merchants paid to show up in that search result, and may not be the only relevant sites to choose from!

Where do I go to shop for many items?

Many e-commerce sites are pretty specialized, in as much as they offer a comprehensive selection of the type of merchandise they specialize in, a metal detector store for metal detectors and accessories, or a camera store for digital cameras, picture cards, and batteries, etcetera. Although these stores often have the most competitive prices they might not be your best choice when shopping for many different items, that's where your Internet department stores might be a better choice, and I will tell you why, if you were to buy a metal detector for your Nephew, and a digital camera for your Mom, and a GPS fish finder for your Dad, and a paintball gun for your Brother, and some jewelry for your Niece, buying these items each from a different store will not be as cost efficient as taking some time to find a department type store that has all these different items for offer, even if their prices are a little bit higher, because all the shipping will be calculated by the total weight of the order, not rounding up each item to the next whole pound as when purchased from separate stores.

May all your Internet shopping experiences be positive ones!

Copyright © Daniel Chiapperino 11/2006 http://www.dans-digital-discount-emporium.com

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